The present invention relates to a monofilament surgical suture wire which has a pointed needle-like tip where the pointed tip is harder and stronger than the balance of the suture wire, is of one homogenous piece with the wire, and has been made harder and stronger by local cold working. The self needle tipped suture wire of the present invention is particularly useful in the treatment of a fractured jaw.
A fractured jaw is commonly treated by wiring the teeth individually to a support bar shaped to an appropriate arch form. It is customary to use a single relatively short length of monofilament suture wire to fasten each tooth to the arched bar. Each wire is passed around a tooth at or somewhat below the gum line. This is done by pushing the end of the wire through the space between the teeth and often also through the gum tissue. There is presently available no better penetrating tip for such a wire than can be obtained by cutting the wire obliquely with a wire cutter.
Monofilament suture wire is of necessity soft and malleable. It is poorly suited for being pushed between the teeth and through the gum tissue, especially when the penetrating tip is not a sharp point. The present practice of pushing the non-sharp wire tips through the gum tissue causes unnecessary trauma to the tissue which increases the potential for the onset of local infection. In addition, the wire strength is sometimes inadequate to resist buckling under the force required to push the wire between the teeth when high resistance is encountered. Although theoretically the tip of the suture wire could be made pointed, in practice this is difficult to do using conventional manufacturing techniques because the material is soft. In contrast, a hard material is amenable to accepting and holding a sharp edge or point.
Wire sutures with swaged-on needles are available, but are not suitable for wiring fractured jaws because the needle diameter is approximately twice that of the suture wire and there is frequently not enough room to pass such a swaged-on needle between the teeth. In addition, swaged needles are costly and add considerably to the expense of treatment when as many as 24 wires may be used in a single procedure.
Accordingly, a primary object of the present invention is to provide a monofilament suture wire of suitable malleable material with an integral hard and strong needle-like tip.
A further object is to provide a hard strong needle-like tip on a suture wire where the needle-like tip is of no larger diameter than the parent suture wire.
A further object is to provide a needle-like tip for a wire suture at low cost.
A further object is to provide a method for manufacturing a hard and strong needle-like tip from the parent soft malleable suture wire material.